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According to Advertising Age, Presidential nominee John McCain is coming in paltry fifth place. Fifth, that is, for the ad trade's annual "Marketer of the Year" award for 2008 (although with McCain's schizophrenic branding campaign, it's kind of strange he made the list at all). Guess who the winner is—beating out business icons like Apple and Nike? Brand Obama, who seems to be the "you" of 2008 (as in Time's Person of the Year 2006). Of the hundreds of agency heads and top marketers attending the annual Association of National Advertisers' conference, 36% voted for the Dem (which did not include P&G's soon exiting Jim Stengel, who didn't vote for McCain or Obama, but Apple, which came in second place). Reasons for the Obama crowning include his campaign's ability to harnass and mobilize Web 2.0 and turn a no-name brand into a powerful household name. If you want to find out how Obama actually did it, read Fast Company's "The Brand Called Obama," from our April issue.

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